Nice adriatic itinerary, wonderful on-board service, below average food.
Azamara Pursuit Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean
9 Night Dalmatian Coast (Venice To Athens)
Sail date: September 17, 2024
Ship: Azamara Pursuit
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 6002
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 month ago
Review summary
Azamara is positioned similar to Regent or Oceania, however it does not execute as well as those. The ship is well appointed and even though it's 20+ yrs old, the last dry dock was 2018 and they did a good job in updating the ship. Regular cabins are tiny, the ocean club suites are very spacious and well appointed. Food is average at best; Specialty dining is 8/10 overall good but some execution flaws with seafood (crabcakes, lobster, scallops). General dining is not good; Powdered oily eggs, some frozen items. For lunch I stuck with salads and burgers which are easy to execute. Service was exceptional. Also itinerary is good as all days there's a port call and generous time to spend on each, however a couple of ports (Argostoli and Olympia) were filler ports. Embarkation was confusing; The customer service team couldn't confirm if we needed to show up to Venice Marittima or Chioggia. We showed up at Marittima and there was no signage of Azamara personnel. After 3 stops within the port we finally found them and the took us to the ship. Had I know that we could embark myself in Chioggia, we could have driven ourselves. Accounting/Guest relations/Bill settlement was very confusing; A day before disembarking I requested a balance of my total vacation charges, the staff provided a balance of $380 debit. I spent an additional $100 and expected $480 the last day I was charged $1,424. While I requested a balance for the total spend, guest relations only gave me the balance for the amount while on board and did not clarify of the extra $948 spent on prepaid tours before embarkation date, so beware that any charges prior to embarkation are not included in partial balances while on board. In Summary. Excellent itineraries and Service, Fair ship and amenities, Average to below average food and some process flaws keep Azamara a tad below its more established comparable peers.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you are used to traveling with Regent, Oceania or Seaborn, get the owners suite. Azamara is priced 40% below similar room category, however with an owners suite (Similar price to an ocean view suite on Seaborn) you get much more space. Service is similar or even better as you have a cabin butler. Food is not nearly as good.
Ports of call
Venice, Italy Did not visit port
Rovinj, Croatia Did not visit port
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece Did not visit port